Basil AI: On-device AI note taker for Apple devices that transcribes and summarizes meetings entirely offline, with no cloud upload. noScribe: Free, open-source desktop transcriber that runs Whisper and pyannote fully locally with speaker identification and a synchronized editor. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Basil AI when transcribing confidential client meetings where data must stay on-device matters most, and noScribe when journalists generating diarized transcripts of recorded conversations matters most. Trial each on a few real meetings before you commit — the better fit usually shows fast.
On-device AI note taker for Apple devices that transcribes and summarizes meetings entirely offline, with no cloud upload.
Free, open-source desktop transcriber that runs Whisper and pyannote fully locally with speaker identification and a synchronized editor.
Basil AI (Basil Private AI Note Taker) is a privacy-first AI transcription and note-taking application that processes all audio locally on Apple devices using Apple's on-device speech and machine-learning frameworks. Because recordings, transcripts, and summaries never leave the device and no cloud servers are involved, Basil is positioned for privacy-conscious professionals handling sensitive conversations, including lawyers conducting client meetings and other client-services practitioners where confidentiality matters. The app records live meetings and can also process uploaded audio and DRM-free video files, then generates transcripts with speaker diarization plus AI summaries and key takeaways. It supports a large set of languages and can work offline, including in airplane mode. Outputs can be exported to formats such as text, PDF, CSV, and JSON, and integrated with Apple's ecosystem (Apple Notes, iCloud Drive, Files). Basil is distributed on the Apple App Store by TONSOR LLC and is available as a universal app across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision, with recent iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS versions required. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
noScribe is a free, open-source desktop transcription tool that runs entirely on the user's own computer to protect the confidentiality of recordings. Licensed under GPL-3.0 and actively maintained, with a v0.7.2 maintenance release in June 2026, it is built around OpenAI's Whisper (via the faster-whisper library) for speech recognition and pyannote for speaker diarization, so it can distinguish between different speakers and label who said what. It understands around 60 languages and supports automatic or manually specified speaker counts. noScribe is primarily designed for producing high-quality transcripts of interviews for qualitative social research and journalistic work, and it ships with a dedicated companion editor, noScribeEdit, that synchronizes audio playback with the transcript text and provides search and replace, formatting, zoom, and playback-speed controls. It supports Windows (with optional CUDA acceleration on Nvidia GPUs), macOS on Apple Silicon, and Linux in both CPU and CUDA versions. Additional capabilities include batch transcription, pause detection and marking, an experimental overlapping-speech detection mode, and export to multiple formats such as HTML, VTT, and TXT, plus an available command-line interface for scripted use. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Basil AI is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); noScribe is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Basil AI | noScribe |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | 100% on-device transcription with no cloud upload | Fully local transcription using Whisper via faster-whisper |
| Standout feature | Speaker diarization to separate participants automatically | Speaker diarization with pyannote (automatic or manual speaker counts) |
| Team usage | AI-generated summaries, minutes, and key takeaways | Support for around 60 languages |
| Integrations | Support for recording live meetings and uploading audio/video files | Synchronized companion editor (noScribeEdit) with playback follow-along |
| Languages & capture | Multi-language support and offline (airplane-mode) operation | Batch transcription, pause detection, and experimental overlapping-speech detection |
| Best-fit workflow | Export to text, PDF, CSV, and JSON, plus Apple Notes/iCloud/Files | Exports to HTML, VTT, and TXT plus a command-line interface |
Basil AI
Choose Basil AI if you need transcribing confidential client meetings where data must stay on-device — strengths include strong privacy posture since data never leaves the device.
noScribe
Choose noScribe if you need researchers transcribing qualitative interviews while keeping data on their own machine — strengths include runs 100% locally to keep sensitive recordings confidential.
Basil AI
noScribe
It depends on your workflow. Basil AI is strong for transcribing confidential client meetings where data must stay on-device, while noScribe is strong for researchers transcribing qualitative interviews while keeping data on their own machine. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Basil AI is a free tier with paid upgrades and noScribe is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
Yes. Many teams run more than one meeting assistant when the workflows are complementary.
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